Barbara Lee (2)

This is a very interesting book which is both a biography of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and the story of her efforts to make the world a better place by fighting many forms of injustice. Instead of being an autobiography in chronological order, different chapters concern different social and/or political problems; Ms. Lee explains how life experiences have influenced her understanding and views of the problems. This approach does create some repetition since some of the issues are show more interrelated. Ms. Lee also shows how her religious faith has helped her through times of stress; she quotes the Bible several times. Probably the most stressful event of her political career was when Congresswoman Lee was the only person to vote against the resolution giving George Bush unlimited power to use force after 9/11; she received so many death threats that she was heavily guarded following it.

At times the book gets bogged down when Ms. Lee is discussing specific laws which she sponsored or supported.

This book was published in 2008 prior to Obama’s election. Ms. Lee had high hopes for Obama’s presidency; it would be interesting to have an update. show less